Category Archives: SWEU

EU Retrospective: The New Jedi Order Part 3

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The Yuuzhan Vong just keep on coming.  Really, they must have an endless supply or something.  The good news is that things are starting to get slightly better for the New Republic.  The really good news is that I got to read more Allston and Stover books!  (I have my priorities straight.  Honestly.)  The really really REALLY good news is that I have not only passed the halfway mark in the New Jedi Order but that I have now read more than 100 books on this crazy little venture of mine.  Huzzah!  With all of that said, onward!

Dark Journey
GET IN LOSER, WE’RE GOING BACK TO HAPES.

I really like this book. I honestly do and it’s not just because we get to go back to Hapes. For starters, this is clearly a Jaina Solo book and I love when we get to see her take a leading role.  Even though she goes to some less than ideal mental states in the book, she emerges that much stronger.

The title gives away that Jaina has a brush with the dark side and I honestly don’t blame her.  She thinks that both of her brothers are dead and the war’s taken its most drastic downward turn yet. I’d be pretty ready to dabble in the dark side too at this point.  I like how Elaine Cunningham uses Kyp Durron in the book first as someone who’s willing to help her use whatever means necessary to strike back at the Vong and then as someone who helps pull her back from that edge.

Although it is Jaina’s book, Tenel Ka gets to go through some neat character development too.  Taking up her mother’s crown is easily one of the two most significant events we’ve gotten to witness this far.  Even though she is the heir, it’s not exactly the role that I ever thought she’d fill.  I just wish that we’d gotten a chance to watch her learn how to deal with being the Queen Mother in those first few years.

I’m also a huge fan of Jag Fel finally returning to the picture (along with the Baron Fel cameo) but more on that in the next two books.

What I especially love is how Cunningham introduces the Trickster plan.  It’s a clever idea from Jaina and there’s something rather delightful about her raising an eyebrow at the Vong and going “Yeah, I’m basically Yun-Harla.  What are you going to do about it?”

On top of that, this book is incredibly quotable.  From “Is every third human in this galaxy named Solo?” to “In his opinion, there were far too many dark haired, green eyed men in Jaina Solo’s orbit.”, I’m consistently amused.

The one problem I have with the book is the pacing.  It’s not that it’s terribly done but she doesn’t even arrive at Hapes until over a third of the way through. Of course, that can partially be blamed on how Star by Star ended because this book basically had to pick up immediately afterwards.  Actually, the other problem I have with the book is that poor Teneniel Djo gets used as a plot device and is a far cry from the strong willed woman we met back on Dathomir.

Aside from that though?  I love the book and I’ll just link this classic gif to illustrate my response to those who give me a hard time about it.

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The Martha Wells “Leia novel” Gets Official Title

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Martha Wells announced on her Live Journal that her new Star Wars novel, the first in the “Rebels” series, now has an official name: Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge. Sounds like we might finally get into the nitty-gritty of Leia’s character in this book, which is awesome.

I’m very excited for this book, and I’m also really excited for potential implications of the new series name, Empire and Rebellion. Does this mean we might get stories from an Imperial point of view, say with fan favorite characters like Baron Fel and Tycho Celchu? Just imagine how awesome a Tycho defecting from the Empire novel would be.

Razor’s Edge is scheduled for release on October 15. Other upcoming novels in the Empire and Rebellion series include a Han-centric novel from James S.A. Corey and a Luke-centric novel from Kevin Hearne.

Del Rey also confirmed the titles on Twitter and Facebook:

More layoffs at Lucasfilm targeting licensing and marketing

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By all indications, there’s been another round of layoffs at Lucasfilm. This time it also affects the Lucasfilm Licensing division.

These layoffs are reportedly impacting individuals within licensing, marketing, and publishing. The first two make a certain amount of sense since Disney has huge licensing and marketing arms, but publishing would be a bit more out of left field as they do not have much in the way of in-house options on that front. Possibly the layoffs within that arm are confined to children and reference materials, which Disney can probably replicate. Adult fiction would be tougher.

Via Club Jade

UPDATE: Publishing not impacted

Sounds like the initial report was wrong on the publishing front. LFL’s Jen Heddle got in contact with Club Jade to clear things up:

This makes quite a bit more sense. If Disney can do anything internally, it’s licensing products and marketing everything under their umbrella. Publishing is still something that they in theory have the framework to do entirely internally, but isn’t what I would call a strong suit. For now (and I suspect for a long, long while), the setup remains the same for Star Wars literature.

Mythbusting: Did George Lucas order Anakin Solo’s death?

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The myth: George Lucas feels that there would be marketing and brand confusion to have two heroes named Anakin at the same time, one in the Prequel Trilogy and one in the Expanded Universe. Because of this, he orders Anakin Solo to be killed in the New Jedi Order books. Troy Denning is given the instructions from Lucasfilm itself to kill off Anakin.

Murdered by George Lucas!?

The investigation: To get to the answer, Nanci went to the Twittersphere and all-around-awesome Lucasfilm person Pablo Hidalgo dug into his notes to get to the bottom of the issue.

The reality: It turns out that George Lucas and Lucasfilm itself didn’t order that Anakin Solo be killed. Rather, they stated that he couldn’t be a prophetic hero and that role should be changed up to someone else. Hello, Jacen.

It appears that the decision to kill Anakin was made somewhere lower on the chain, perhaps the editors and/or authors working with Del Rey at the time. Whoever made the call, what’s clear is that there wasn’t a directive from on high to off Anakin Solo. The decision to kill him rather than change his role or put him on a bus appears to have been made by the people actually producing the books. 

Busted

EU Retrospective: The New Jedi Order Part 2

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Things might be going really downhill for the galaxy but boy are they going uphill for me as a reader!  I actually find the middle chunk of New Jedi Order books to be incredibly solid reads and rather enjoy all of them despite the emotions they might provoke from me.

Balance Point:
It’s a marvel I stuck with the New Jedi Order because Balance Point is the third book in a row that just doesn’t impress me. It’s not that it’s necessarily bad, it’s just meh and I find it to be boring.

Again, the bits with Mara and Anakin working together are definitely a highlight. Actually, everything with Mara in this book is a high point. And that’s about it.

The entire point of the book seems to be an excuse for the Solo family to continue to have its issues and to resolve most of them by the end. The other point seems to be for Jacen Solo to continue to have his philosophical issues with using the Force and I still don’t buy any of that reasoning. By this point, the war’s been going on for a year and the Vong are clearly an issue. I don’t believe for a minute that Jacen Solo would sit back and not give his all to defend the galaxy. It just doesn’t fit with this character. With Tsavong Lah declaring that he wants all the Jedi dead and singling out Jacen, this feels like it was almost tacked on editorial meddling when they realized that he wouldn’t be the Solo kid dying.

I’m sure there are other people out there who liked this book but not I.  I’m going to stick with my resounding ‘meh’ for my review.

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EU Retrospective: The New Jedi Order Part 1

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Welcome back to the Waru Express, dear readers, after a bit of a break.  We’re diving right into the New Jedi Order which requires an entire shelf all on its own.  19 books?  Let’s go!  Before we dive into the book reviews, I figured I’d let you all in on a secret: I don’t hate the NJO.  In fact, I like a fair bit of it.  There are certainly some books and occurrences that I strongly dislike and I think it could’ve been shorter but I enjoy the vast majority of it.  Spoiler Alert: I love the Stackpole, Allston, and Stover books but does that surprise any of you?  My point is that I’m not a hater when it comes to these books but neither do I blindly love them so while my thoughts are on these books are likely to be a fair bit more positive than most of the blogosphere, you’re still going to get a decent dose of snark.  Starting with this post.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the first lengthy review post as I discuss the books from Vector Prime to Jedi Eclipse.

Vector Prime
Ah yes.  The infamous “Chewbacca is Dead!” book.  I feel nothing but pity for R.A. Salvatore having to be the one to pull the trigger on this given how the fandom can be at times.  Let’s get the giant wookiee in the corner out of the way.  Yeah, Chewbacca dying sucks.  Reading through the book knowing what was coming made all the scenes with Chewie that much more painful.  He’s a big part of our group of heroes and it is sad that he dies.  HOWEVER.  His death certainly does signify to the readers that this oncoming threat isn’t going to be easily defeated and that no one will escape unscathed.  Also?  If you’re going to go out, this is certainly one of the more badass ways to do it.  Chewbacca rejects your notion of death by blasterfire and goes down shaking his fist at a freaking moon.

I’d really like to know what the heck happened to Jacen Solo between the end of Crisis of Crystal Reef and the start of this book.  It feels like I’m reading about two completely different characters and I’m not even counting the lack of bad jokes because that’s something a person could reasonably grow out of.

Overall, I actually think the book functions quite well in its role.  It sets up the Vong invasion, lets us get to see our favorite characters again, and tells us that this isn’t going to be an easy ride.  I also find it to be an enjoyable book on its own.  It’s nice getting to see the Solo kids have some fun before the galaxy goes to hell even if it’s only for the first half of the book.

The final line of the book sums it up the best: “But to Han Solo, the galaxy suddenly seemed a more dangerous place by far.”

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Dark Horse Adapting Original Star Wars Concept

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At Wodnercon yesterday, Dark Horse revealed just what that Jonathan Rinzler-written project would be. According to BleedingCool.com, it’s going to be an adaptation of George Lucas’ original Star Wars concept.

At WonderCon, Dark Horse announces new eight issue Star Wars series for September – The Star Wars. Based on George Lucas‘ original concept that eventually became the Star Wars films.

Featuring Darth Vader not as a Sith/Jedi but just a General. Anakin Starkiller. An old General Luke Skywalker.  Jonathan Rinzler will write and Mike Mayhew will do the art.

Dark Horse also shared some concept artwork for the new series which you can see at the link above. For continuity purists, don’t even try to mesh this into canon and just enjoy it for what it is. A fun Infinities-style what-if.

Star Wars, Marvel, and the Multiverse

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In the Star Wars fandom, there’s always some war of words brewing between fans. We’ve seen the Ship Wars, the Prequel Trilogy consternation, the Clone Wars skirmishes. One that has been on slow simmer for years is cold war between Expanded Universe Completists and Film Purists. Countless words have been written defending the merits of one and tearing down another.

To say things have blown up since the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney and the announcement of the Sequel Trilogy would be an understatement. There seems to be a belief among the most ardent of Star Wars fans that the Expanded Universe and the Sequel Trilogy cannot exist simultaneously. One has to vanish in order for the other to thrive.

To borrow a phrase from Nanci earlier this week, I say bullshit.

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The Sequel Trilogy and the Expanded Universe

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Note: I will not be surprised if Episode VII bulldozes the entire post-Return of the Jedi era Expanded Universe. But that’s not the point of this post.

Lately I’ve been seeing people argue that Episode VII can’t and shouldn’t use elements from the Expanded Universe, else the story idea will be limited. I certainly understand that argument. Also, we already know that Episode VII will follow an original storyline, meaning Episodes VII, VIII, and IX won’t be The Thrawn Trilogy or some other EU book. People point to that statement as evidence that the Sequel Trilogy won’t use anything from the EU, because it would be too difficult to explain who these new characters are.

To that, I say bullshit.

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